Another wet week and more to come

The arrival of autumn brought more wet weather to Cessnock City, with 113.2mm of rain in the first three days of March – more than the long term average for the whole month.

With 44.2mm falling up to 9am Friday and a further 51.4mm in the next 24 hours, two major events planned for Saturday were cancelled – the Kurri-Cessnock Rugby League Charity Shield and the 1955 flood plaque dedication that was to be held at Veteran’s Park Aberdare.

Cessnock Road was closed in both directions at Testers Hollow and road closures were also put in place at Old North Road, Rothbury and numerous roads in the Wollombi/Laguna region.

Cessnock’s average total rainfall for March (72.8mm, according to records dating back to 1968) has been exceeded and is more than halfway to the wettest March on record (216.6mm in the year 2000).

The city had recorded more than 300mm of rain in the first two months of this year, and after the third solid day of rain on Sunday the total had reached 416.4mm (more than half Cessnock’s average annual rainfall of 744.9mm).

It was also a chilly start to the new season, with a maximum temperature of 19.1 degrees recorded on March 1 – eight degrees below the long-term average high.

Temperatures will rise to the mid- to high twenties this week with possible showers predicted almost every day.